Different, Together
by Bittersweet x
Summary: Sirius Black is well and done with his family. However, he is also quite hungry. James Potter is very helpful in both situations.


**Hiii. I'm back from my mini-NaNoWriMo-hiatus, which I realized I probably should've warned you all about before I went on it :P Ah well..****here's a cute little Sirius/James eleven year old friendship story to make up for it :)**

**Disclaimer: All I own is one 50k novel, courtesy of NaNoWriMo :)**

**This was _enormously _satisfying to write. I'm not quite sure why. Review! With something vaguely substantial, if you're up to it!**

_Different, Together  
><em>

When Sirius Black realized he wanted to be different, he was eleven years old and he had just been sent a Howler from his mother who was not impressed at all with him being placed in Gryffindor.

Well, actually, he'd known that he'd wanted to be different, in general, since he was nine years old and had seen his favorite cousin in the entire world being shunned by her own dumb sisters for befriending a Muggle born. But even then, he had a certain aura of fear lingering around him, and he didn't_ quite _want to be different.

But when he received that Howler, he decided right then and there that that was that, this family stuff was over. He was going to be the most Different Black there ever was and he was _going to very well enjoy it._

He decided a good way to start this path of difference was not to sit in the Great Hall and listen to a Howler rage rather rude things to him, so he simply stood up and walked away.

He walked the length of the halls once, but then he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to go back in the Hall, but he was hungry and there was still a long time till breakfast was over.

He sighed and leaned against a wall. Being Different was not as easy as he thought it would be.

Suddenly, the doors of the hall banged open. He wondered who in the world would bother coming out when there was a perfectly good breakfast inside. He wouldn't, except for it would be kind of same-ish to stay in there.

"Hello, was it Sirius?" said the apparently crazy person who had come out of the Hall that had food in it.

He had food, though. A whole tray of it. Sirius eyed it as he nodded.

"I'm James, James Potter," said James Potter. "We're in the same dorm, with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew?"

Sirius looked up from the food into the boy's face and realized he did indeed know exactly who he was. "Oh, hello, James," he said. "Nice to meet you, again. What'd'ya bring that food out here for?"

"You," said James simply, and without further adeu he sat down on the ground, cross legged, and motioned for Sirius to join him. "And me, of course. Duh."

"Oh," said Sirius, a bit confused. "Well. Thank you. Is that bacon?"

"Yes," said James.

Sirius sat down, still confused but rather pleased. "Oh. Well. Thank you, I suppose."

"No trouble," said James around a mouthful of bacon. "Eat."

Being a ridiculously typical eleven year old boy, Sirius had no qualms with this suggestion. He was quite happy to begin shoveling food in his mouth.

When James appeared to have eaten quite enough, he set his fork down and looked expectantly at Sirius. "Well?" he asked.

"Well what," asked Sirius.

"Why'd'ya just run out like that, that's what?"

"Oh, that. Well, I got a Howler, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but then you just ran off. What was _that,_ then?"

"Well, didn't you _hear _the Howler?"

"Just a bit hard to miss, wasn't it? What psycho was that anyway, yelling about how you disgraced your family by being a Gryffindor? Was it your Aunt Mildred? I have an aunt Mildred, and she's nuts."

"No," said Sirius quietly. "It was my mother."  
>"Oh," said James. "I see."<p>

"Anyway," said Sirius, trying to make it as if he didn't care in the slightest, "I don't care in the slightest. On account of I just decided I'm going to be completely different from my family from now on on account of they're kind of terrible."

"Yeah, they do seem a bit awful," agreed James. "Is that why you ran out, then?"

"Yes," said Sirius, "it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it probably wasn't, because I got pretty hungry. This is good food, though. Thanks for that, by the way."

"No problem.. so _do _you have an Aunt Mildred?"

"No, my family names their kids very oddly. I have an Aunt Druscilla."

"What a strange name, it sounds like Dracula – he's this weird Muggle vampire. Is she a vampire?"

This surprised a laugh out of Sirius. "She might as well be," he said with the shadow of a grin. "She's _crazy,_ honestly. It worries me."

"Your whole family like that?"

"My cousin's all right," conceded Sirius, "Andromeda, she's all right – she's in fourth year, just a bit above us, but she's a Slytherin, of course, everyone in my family's a Slytherin, which is why, y'know, I got that Howler in the first place."

"Yes, I know," said James. "Everyone knows the Blacks."

Sirius frowned. "Do you see why I want to be different now?"

"Yep," said James. "But really, you need a better start. Running away from food is _never _a good idea."

"No," said Sirius. "It isn't."

The bell rang.

They looked at each other, smiled, stood up, and set off down the hall together.

He would be different, Sirius decided, and he would be different with James. They would be different, together.

_The End_


End file.
